Program Director Larry Berger Explains New Format, WPLJ New York | July 1983

95.5 New York WPLJ AOR

Those who’ve been in the radio industry for a long time probably remember the day WPLJ flipped from Rock to CHR. Many even remember former WPLJ jock Carol Miller’s comments to a trade publication of the day (which escapes your webmaster at the moment) saying that WPLJ wanted to switch formats while on top – it WAS the top rated AOR formatted station of the day.

“Lets Hear It” was a forum in which Program Director Larry Berger could talk to the audience and get a feel for what they were thinking about WPLJ at the time. What station would do that today? Back in 1983, Berger used this forum to explain the impending format change to CHR, and why the station was going in that direction. Whether this was the real reason or not, he sure made the case that WPLJ needed to change, as the times were changing along with it.

Courtesy of our old site contributor friend Neal Bowden, whom we haven’t heard from for a while, this really is a MUST LISTEN… it dispels many myths of not only WPLJ, but many former AOR stations that either went CHR or to Classic Rock. You won’t learn this in college…